The
grounding of the USAF F-22 Raptor fleet has dragged on for months as the investigation
into what caused issues with the onboard oxygen generation system were
investigated. At this point, there is still no clear answer on what gave
multiple pilots hypoxia-like symptoms during flights. Affected pilots in
several instances were found to have toxins in their blood.

Last week, reports indicated that USAF chief Gen. Norton Schwartz would be given options to grant flight
status back to the F-22 fleet. Schwartz has approved a plan that will allow the
160 F-22 aircraft in the fleet to fly above 50,000 feet according to Defense News. The Raptor has a
60,000-foot ceiling.

The life
support systems will be inspected daily on all of the aircraft, and all the
systems will be extensively inspected before any of the jets take to the skies.
The plan also calls for F-22 pilots to undergo physiological tests and to have
additional protective equipment when they fly. Exactly what the extra equipment
would be is unknown.

"We now have enough insight from recent studies and investigations that a
return to flight is prudent and appropriate," Schwartz said. "We're
managing the risks with our aircrews, and we're continuing to study the F-22's
oxygen systems and collect data to improve its performance."

As the F-22 fleet is preparing to return to the skies, the long-delayed and over
budget F-35 fighter is again under pressure. USAF Secretary Michael
Donley pledged support to the F-35 on September 19. However, with budget cuts
coming and Washington looking for everything they can find to cut costs, Donley
didn’t offer answers to what functionalities on the F-35 the USAF would be willing
to lose to bring the cost of the fighters down.

Donley said that it would be difficult to eliminate core functionality from the
program. "There are 12 core functions in the Air Force, there are none
that we can just jettison," Donley said. "Each of those core
functions is performing an important mission not just for the Air Force but the
joint team."

Lockheed Martin says that as of now the F-35B STOVL version of the fighter is
ahead on flight testing slightly and will be heading to sea trials in the first
week of October if all goes as planned. The carrier-based F-35C will start sea
trials next spring according to officials.

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It was a purposeful mischaracterization of both capabilities and the intentions of the Soviets in the 1970's.

As more documents from that era see the light of day, they show that as early as 1974 there were shortages of everything from food and medicine to materials and manufactured goods, there was abundant social disorder and brutal oppression. They show that the economy was already in the process of breaking down. They show that the military was in no way the cohesive, highly-integrated threat that the US claimed. They show that much of the military R&D had either slowed down or stopped altogether, defense projects were cancelled one after another. They also show that most of their military R&D was geared towards self defense because let's face it, the Soviet Union was just as afraid of the US as the US was of them.

These also happened to be in the CIA dockets that were given to Reagan and the official recommendation of the CIA was to let them fail on their own as it would frighten people away from communism.

Gorbachev didn't need Reagan to tell him that Soviet Communism was a failure. He had toured practically the entire country from one side to the other by 1980 and was firmly set as a reformist by time of his return to Moscow. What's more, he had had visited all of the Soviet satellites by 1984 and witnessed that the loss of these countries were a forgone conclusion. In 1986 he made his famous "We can't go on living like this" speech to the Communist Central Committee. Read the mans memoirs and you'll start to get a pretty good idea of how bad things were for them.

quote: Why are you so anti-American dude?

I'm not, I'm anti-neo-con because they've proven themselves to be a pack of fanciful liars time and time again. One would think the American people would catch on, but unfortunately they are too afraid to read anything from the outside world in spite of the internet.

Soon we will start to see the actual CIA documents themselves and have the advantage of being able to compare those to that of the Soviets to see how they line up.

quote: As more documents from that era see the light of day, they show that as early as 1974 there were shortages of everything from food and medicine to materials and manufactured goods, there was abundant social disorder and brutal oppression.

This made them all the more desperate and dangerous, not automatically docile and pacifists. None of this would have stopped them from "pressing the button".

quote: These also happened to be in the CIA dockets that were given to Reagan and the official recommendation of the CIA was to let them fail on their own as it would frighten people away from communism.

Last time I checked we didn't declare war on the USSR. One could easily make the argument that we DID let them fail.

And really Iaiken, since when was the CIA beyond reproach? This is the same CIA that convinced us all we needed to invade Iraq because they had WMD's. In fact, WOW, I can't believe they still have the report on their site...

The CIA has been known to forge documents, make huge blunders, or just outright LIE about a situation. These documents you herald sound like a bunch of political ass-covering to me. Oh oh yeah that's right, we TOLD Reagan to just not match the USSR militarily umm yeah, it's Rumsfelds fault.

quote: As more documents from that era see the light of day, they show that as early as 1974 there were shortages of everything from food and medicine to materials and manufactured goods, there was abundant social disorder and brutal oppression... They show that much of the military R&D had either slowed down or stopped altogether, defense projects were cancelled one after another. They also show that most of their military R&D was geared towards self defense because let's face it, the Soviet Union was just as afraid of the US as the US was of them.

Most of this is really misleading. The Soviets developed some of their most ambitious, most sophisticated projects during this time. The Mig-29, the Su-27, the Blackjack bomber, the Buran Space Shuttle, etc.